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Cognitive Dissonance and the Republican Party

For years, I have tried to understand how and why so many of my family and friends, good and intelligent people, buy into the Trump-MAGA promise of quick and easy solutions to complex problems. I see why they believe the government has let them down and understand why they believe transgender athletes should not compete in women’s sports.

But after Trump’s disappointing first term, his encouragement of the J6 insurrection, and his convictions for sexual abuse and falsifying business records, I cannot understand why they elected him to a second term. And in this term, after pardoning the convicted insurrectionists and surrounding himself with lackies like Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth who are unsuited for their roles in government, he continues to support them.

Cognitive dissonance, the mental distress felt by people who hold two or more conflicting beliefs simultaneously, offers some insight. People naturally desire harmony in their lives. Those who celebrated Trump’s candidacy in the 2020 election were angered when the results were tallied. Their beliefs did not align with the facts.

To remove such discomfort, people react in different ways. They may reconcile their belief with opposing facts; may seek out only information that affirms their beliefs, a process known as Confirmation Bias, or they may rationalize, ignore, or misinterpret information that challenges their views, known as Belief Disconfirmation.

Dissonance can be triggered by religious and political views. To be sure, Democrats as well as Republicans can be affected but is more prevalent in today’s Republican Party. The GOP is dominated by Christian fundamentalists who have absolute faith in both Christian doctrine and Donald Trump.

Faith and reason built our great nation and they peacefully co-existed – until the 1970’s when we allowed the Christian fundamentalism of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to enter our politics. For Christian........

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